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I liked it, but I was already a fan of Shane Black and this felt like a Shane Black film set in the world of Iron Man. In fact, I enjoyed the stuff where he's out of the suit as much as if not more than when he was in it. But it does have a different feel than the first 2. I wouldn't call it middling, but that is ultimately a question of differing tastes anyway. I like the idea that the Marvel films can have different feels that don't necessarily betray the fact that they are Marvel films in the process.

Caught IM3 on Friday, and I must say, I didn't enjoy it that much. It felt like a modern dumb summer movie, not like Iron Man. There were Shane Black scenes lifted straight out of his other movies, I spied Last Boy Scout and Lethal Weapon ideas throughout, the attack on Tony's house felt a lot like Lethal Weapon 2's assault on Riggs' beach trailer for example. The ripoff with The Mandarin felt really cheap, and the other villains just felt generic and flat and not a credible threat. The ending was just silly and messy, there was a lot about the film that was a mess but that ending felt tonally dishonest to the rest of the movie. Part of the problem is that the movie doesn't care who Tony is, he's "inventive action hero" with some artificial elements tossed onto his shoulders pretending that there's baggage from the events of The Avengers; and Rhodey is awful, still miscast and now written completely wrong. I gave it a 5/10, it's not horribly incompetent at being a stupid action fluff film, but it's awful as an Iron Man movie (which makes 2 bad IM movies in my book) or a Marvel film at all.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

Kylo Ren - came from Space Brooklyn, although he moved to Space Williamsburg before it was trendy.

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

Maybe that's the difference - I am not familiar with the comic books, so I just enjoyed the movie.

That's true. The people I know who are not familiar with the comic books enjoyed the movie. Those who are familiar, didn't like it or were disappointed, like me.

Spoiler...

Also didn't like the Batman Begins rip off. The Mandarin and Ras Al Ghul, two very similiar characters have both been turned into stand-in puppets for other people, when they should have been major bad ***** villains.

I prefer grounded visions. To this day I have no desire to see The Avengers. I object to Thor.

Somehow, I let Kal-El slide past. It comes from my renewed interest in Man of Steel due to Smallville (which stems from my constant interest in Kristin Kruek and love for Michael Rosenbaum's portrayal of Lex Luthor).

While we're at it: DAMMIT! Superman ought to be made with:

Tom Welling
Michael Rosenbaum
Kristin Kruek
Erica Durance

And any necessary others. NOT an origin story, btw - as the show (for 10 years!) covered that.

Martha, Jonathon, Lionel Luthor, even Green Arrow (well -he might work in well - as either actor who has portrayed him for the WB network) might all be unnecessary.

Great writing could provide a real challenge to "Clark" that does not require Zod or someone with equal powers.

Kneel before PLOT!

And this needs a budget of a theatrical release - not a made-for-TV movie (though I'd watch that with this cast).

Anyway, as I write my own novels for eventual publication, I may be delaying my viewing of Star Trek unfortunately.

Some of you can go out and see it right now - tonight even.

I have friends going (gone already) but I declined so I could work on my writing (this is a single SSG break as I'm about to go get something to eat).

I think I see it at 9:45 tomorrow morning as I have a baseball game in the evening and need to do a lot of writing.

BAD Pts Need:R5-C7 lf leg (x2), , R4-P44 right leg BAD Pts Offered For Trade: PM me - I have lots of parts now including BG-J38!. New Kyle Katarn is also available.

Sooo, getting together... The first date available for Chaddy and Bran is May 28th, I believe. Who can, who can't?

SPOILERS FOR IRON MAN 3 BELOW, READ AT YOUR PERIL...

Originally Posted by figrin bran

Sounds like you liked it even less than me, JT.

AIM, Mandarin and Iron Patriot are all very credible threats in the Marvel Universe but this film turned all 3 into charlatans.

What number grade would you give it? To me, coming off IM1, IM2, and The Avengers, this film was just not bringing any heat at all, it was like a generic summer action film with IM slapped into the parts, and had some "greatest hits" of '80s action cop movies thrown in for no reason. And it changed technical aspects of the way things had previously been presented in the series merely to make them stupider, easier to defeat, or just to go along with the movie.

Yeah, the way they just cast all the good villains aside for lesser-than scenario really sucked. Iron Patriot isn't even anything here, he's not even a charlatan, just a paint job - the original is nefarious and uses jingoism against society... for the betterment of society, in a way. This was just "a guy".

Originally Posted by Chaddymac

Maybe that's the difference - I am not familiar with the comic books, so I just enjoyed the movie.

I don't think so, to me I went in expecting very little - IM2 sucked pretty badly. But this was trying to have it both ways, to wear the weight of the past movies on its shoulders and yet throw out a lot of the way the past movies worked simply to do another summer blockbuster action cop movie. It was generic while also breaking many IM rules, and that was before the fact that it let the comics down intentionally, insulting them even. This could have been another Lethal Weapon movie or Beverly Hills Cop movie, another modern junkpile of a film that gets butts in seats and then does what others had done before (putting those elements in a blender of course) and coming out lesser-than.

Example: Col. Rhodes is barely in the film and barely useful in his armor, quickly stripped from him in some nonsense about overheating the torso to cause it to release, as if it's a coffin that opens instead of a suit he wears. And then Rhodey runs around at the end with a pistol. Yet the film also tries to put the weight of the events of the Avengers story on Tony's shoulders - the kid eventually tells him to just build stuff to get over it and it works, despite that being what we was doing throughout the film already and not working prior.

Originally Posted by darkagent

That's true. The people I know who are not familiar with the comic books enjoyed the movie. Those who are familiar, didn't like it or were disappointed, like me.

Spoiler...

Also didn't like the Batman Begins rip off. The Mandarin and Ras Al Ghul, two very similiar characters have both been turned into stand-in puppets for other people, when they should have been major bad ***** villains.

I was familiar with the comics but not heavily, and not dependent. I didn't really expect the Iron Patriot to live up to the nefarious character of the comics, can't even put Norman Osborn in the film anyway, and Rhodey ain't about to go bad like that. But the trailers did play up The Mandarin as a big deal bad guy, and knowing even lightly about the comics character plays into that, only to have it be a big and VERY STUPID twist ripoff.

Ra's Al Ghul wasn't as big a ripoff as The Mandarin IMO, in Batman Begins there are really 2 characters with that name, the phony puppet asian guy(s, there's a second fake R'as at the party) and then Ducard is revealed to be the REAL Ra's Al Ghul and he's an effective badass, and we're not told outright that he's not like the comics character, it's left ambiguous enough. Meanhwile, IM3 is clearly saying there's no The Mandarin at all, he's an actor playing a role for AIM's Guy Pearce, and the 10 rings he wears are meaningless, and whether they tie into the Ten Rings organization from IM 1 is only lightly hinted at being the same (which means Guy Pearce's AIM was behind the plot of IM1, something pretty hateful if you think about it, try not to I guess).

Originally Posted by Chaddymac

In the case of Ra's Al Ghul, I get it - he was an immortal being with vaguely mystical powers in the comics. That would not have translated to Chris Nolan's grounded vision of Batman.

R'as isn't immortal in the comics and he has no mystical powers really, he is centuries old and is kept alive by the powers of the lazarus pit, which is an arcane science, not magic. R'as is just very smart and very old and fairly wise, also he's a skilled fighter and other arcane sciences. And the good thing about Batman Begins is that none of that is negated, it's just not said, it's left to the viewer to decide how realistic or comic-booky the character is in the film.

The same cannot be said of The Mandarin, they make it clear in IM3 that the character was made up by Guy Pearce and has been an actor the whole time, it's clearly not The Mandarin of the comics in any way at all, and that there's no chance there ever could have been a comics version of the character out there as well.

But that's not why I didn't like the film, I can distance myself easily from the comics, that's just an ugly thing I don't like separately.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

Kylo Ren - came from Space Brooklyn, although he moved to Space Williamsburg before it was trendy.

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

I never mentioned about availability so you're probably thinking of someone else, JT?

I'm not sure what numerical score I'd give to IM3 but less than I would give for Retaliation which I felt was merely adequate but not something I'd really want to see again

The toy line for IM3 is lackluster as well. You'd think they would capitalize on all the various armors like the Heartbreaker, Red Snapper and Igor but the best Hasbro can do are poorly articulated repaints?